Paralegal accused of stealing $200,000

RALEIGH -- A former paralegal for a large law firm faces charges of stealing nearly $200,000 from the estate of a Duke University English professor.

Shaunesy Teresa Story, 35, of Mebane was a paralegal at Parker, Poe, Adams and Bernstein, the firm from which she is now accused of embezzling.

While there, she was put in charge of the estate of Kenny J. Williams, a Duke professor who died in 2003, according to arrest warrants.

Story left the firm in July, after which the firm noticed money missing from the Williams estate, according to Henry Campen Jr., a partner in Parker Poe's Raleigh office.

The law firm, based in Charlotte, has more than 50 lawyers in its downtown Raleigh office, including Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, also a partner at the firm.

Campen said he did not think anyone else was affected, and the firm reported the theft to the Wake County District Attorney's Office as well as the N.C. State Bar, the state agency that monitors the practice of law.

"No other clients were affected," Campen wrote in a statement. "The matter is in the hands of the applicable authorities."

Story is accused of embezzling $190,363 from the Williams estate and was arrested Nov. 4 by Raleigh police.

Her case likely will be presented in mid-December to a grand jury for indictment, which means criminal charges will stand, said Wake assistant district attorney Christy Joyce.

Attempts to reach Story were unsuccessful. She lists scrapbooking, card making, computer design, photography, dogs and knitting as among her interests on Facebook, a social networking Web site.

According to a Raleigh police detective's arrest warrant, the looting of Williams' estate began in 2004 and continued through this past July.

Williams, 76, began teaching at Duke University in 1977. Her work centered on African-American writers, and she was appointed in 1991 to the National Council of the Humanities by President George H.W. Bush.

If convicted of the embezzlement charge, Story could face four to seven years in prison.